Friday photo – hope

With an element of aurprise for me, hope emerged as my word for 2024, rhythm and courage being the previous two. We ended the year with various uncertainties and complex situations and it is perhaps why the Holy Spirit led me to hope as a word to focus on. Some Bible verses accompany the word as it is a biblical hope I am looking at. Romans 15.13 is the one which I now keep encountering including on the side of a church on holiday – May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

Do you have a word for 2024?

Friday photo – sparking memories

This week I have been editing and writing amongst the trips out to moor and sea. This piece of glass keeps drawing my eye. If you don’t recognise it, it is a representation of St Michael’s Mount and the causeway at Marazion in Cornwall when the tide is out. It is a National Trust property and the building on top was once a Benedictine Monastery.

I have so many happy memories of walking or even paddling across the causeway. Meeting friends and visiting with family, it is a special place for us. I love places which are cut off by the sea, they remind me that there is a natural rhythm to life and I function best when I go with mine so this is being written while it is still dark, the photo taken yesterday in the light. It sparks joy and when I am bogged down with trying to find the right words, it gives me a little break as I glance across and smile. I also get a sense of satisfaction in knowing we have supported an artist in their endeavours.

What do you glance at that evokes such positive memories?

Wondering Wednesdays – finding joy

Rabbi Josh Stampfer, age 97, suggests that “You want to know the secret to finding joy? Every day, I try to make life a little better for someone else. Then my joy comes.

If I reach 97 I hope I would have an attitude like that! What is is that you can do today to make life a little better for someone else? It may be a tiny thing like a quick text, or it could be a card or something, or a reminder that you are praying for someone, a check in, a compliment. Some times it is helpful to get the focus off of us and on to those around us and look at what we can do to bring a smile to their face that day.

Wondering Wednesdays – through the eyes of others

It was my birthday on Sunday and a couple of people reduced me to tears with the lovely things they said about me. On one level I think I am quite self-aware, but in other ways I do find it hard to fully embrace how some others might perceive me, partly perhaps because of the negative messages we all receive at times in different contexts and which can be hard to overcome. I am so grateful for the hope and joy engendered in me through this.

This came as a private message from a friend who I have known for over 30 years and is shared with her permission. I find it hard to share as I am not doing it in a look how wonderful I am way, more as a how blessed I feel that someone sees my life and ministry in this way and as an encouragement to continue in this vein! It makes it more rooted in me writing it and sharing it. I wish I wrote as eloquently as this….

For Sally Perhaps there’s no coincidence that you were born at the first signs of Spring, celebrating you as the days become longer when new flowers bring colour to the bleakness of winter passing. You have helped so many find signs of new life and new seasons through the detritus and leaf mulch of last season’s litter. To find beauty from ashes, strength from hurt. Like the wayfarer, you’ve trawled your fingers through the waters sensing the change of flow and tide and helped others to change their courses and readjust their sails to head for new horizons and destinations. You’ve watched the sunrise from the shore, scanning for signs of change and heard whispers on the breeze. Words have lifted from the pages you’ve held in your hands, and playfully you’ve remoulded them, let them penetrate you and reformed them into words that bring life. You have changed lives, brought light to the dark and forgotten places and shown compassion as you’ve shared sacred meals in the city’s cafes. Amongst the noise of life, you’ve left people to hear again the beating of their own hearts, their dreams and passed on wisdom from the Wise One who’s always near when you are.

This is a file away in an encouragement folder for those days when I need to see myself through the eyes of another who values me when things happen, as they inevitably will, that are discouraging or disheartening..

Friday photo – in praise of public libraries

I rejoined the library last week, 20 years on from when I last regularly used one. I have no idea why it took me so long. This is a picture of the spread of books I have borrowed. The great thing is that they are from two libraries and I can return them where I like!

I had started buying books on Kindle but much prefer the physical versions and given I no longer read in the bath I should be able to look after them properly!

I think libraries come under the use it or lose it banner and I intend to make good use now! I have so many fond memories of library trips as a child and read so many different books there and reading was one of my greatest childhood joys. It still is a and I want to make more time for it.

This is an apt post for our annual reading weekend, I have a lovely pile of books I am looking forward to getting stuck into.

Friday photo – bringing joy

This is the sight that greeted me as I arrived at Birmingham Women’s Hospital yesterday for a meeting! I love the way people use their creative gifts to bring joy to others. I like the angel panel best but it was such a lift for the spirits to see the decorated bear.

All of us can bring joy to others in some way and as the days darken and we move to the longest day, at a time when there may be sadness and challenge, let’s think about how we can bring a little bit of joy to others. Perhaps a message, call, card, small gift. We were each given an advent calendar this week – such fun, I still love them and obviously these ones had chocolate in it because our friend knows us well. I still remember the joy of wanting to see what was behind the window as a child in the only sort of advent calendars that were available then, nativity pictures. I felt joyful when I saw the advent candles as I went into church. I love seeing what is hanging in people’s windows at this time of year or seeing late or early blooming flowers. Do you have greenery or flowers in your garden which would brighten someone else’s home? I did my now weekly foodbank or pantry shop yesterday, and always try to add one thing that may bring a little bit of joy to someone.

What can you do today to bring joy?

Friday photo – simple things

A lovely student arrived back from the coffee shop with a wonderful black americano for me in this cup.

Enjoying the simple things, noticing, naming and acknowledging them is a way of focusing on gratitude and punctuating the day with what brings you life.

For me they are things like the first hour of the day when I ground myself with spiritual practices and set up the day. Another is my first cup of coffee. Watching the birds on our feeders is such a joy. A daily walk is another simple thing I enjoy. My lunchtime bowl of home made soup is a simple meal but feels so nourishing.

What are the simple things which you enjoy?

Friday photo – dawn breaking

Dawn is breaking as I write. This picture is dawn on the last day of our holiday. A clearing sky, a star shining brightly.

The light this morning is that the constituency where I live has elected Birmingham’s first black MP, a woman, Paulette Hamilton, that is something to celebrate.

But so much more is darkness hearing of a fire at a nuclear power station in Ukraine and many more horrors. I continue to pray, to give but hope is a tiny flicker, not a bright light.

I am also aware of the immense privilege of dawn breaking on a day off where I am choosing where to go to plan some writing and do some reading. So there are shards of joy as I anticipate that.

What does dawn bring for you today? How are you preparing for the day ahead? I am sitting, praying, reflecting, reading, journaling, finding equilibrium for the day ahead.

Wondering Wednesdays – biophilia

Child playing in the snow with a leaf

I came across a fascinating article about words which had fallen out of fashion. Biophilia – love of life was one of them. This is what the author wrote:

this word is probably best known as the title of Icelandic singer Bjork’s seventh studio album. Biophilia and its counterpart necrophilia were coined in the 19th century as technical terms in psychology… Biophilia…has remained fairly restricted to technical discussions in psychoanalysis. Nonetheless, its literal meaning – the love of life – suggests a broader human need or desire to connect with nature and living things.

I was talking to someone the other day about how I default too often to particular words and have a thesaurus at hand for when I want to find a better word. I feel blessed to be loving life at the moment for all sorts of reasons and it is good to have a word to describe it. For me joy is the emotion I most experience in relation to biophilia and find myself smiling, home alone, doing all sorts of things. Life has not always been like this, there have been many difficult challenges over the years where it has felt much more like I was plodding through life like walking into a very strong wind. But I remain grateful through each season of life as there is always something I can express gratitude for even in the midst of lament for other things. Birthday week has been a particular time of biophilia this year.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/five-life-affirming-words-we-should-bring-back-into-use?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB link to the full article if you want to discover some other words to reclaim! Picture one used in article and used it here as so evocative – credit Kobby Mendez | Unsplash

Wondering Wednesdays- adding play time

It was so joyful watching these birds splashing in the rock pool, it looked so much fun!

I am exploring habits to get into this new year and playing more is one of them. I want the creativity, joy and freedom that comes with play.

Healthy rhythms are important to me, particularly when I find myself slipping into unhealthy ones at times and when something becomes a habit it is more rooted in my life and more likely to stick.

#rhythm #habit